butter

Since Amanda and Marie are running in the Rock N Roll Marathon and Half (respectively) this weekend, we decided to go all in on the carbs and excessively long and rambling recipe titles. Watch as we try to fuse together one too many cuisines. Will we add SO MANY flavors where it finally works? You’ll have to watch to find out!

Ingredients featured in this week’s episode:

This might have been the weirdest combination of items we have made in the Fearless Flying Kitchen. But it totally works! Comfort food at its best. Risotto is normally made with a short grain rice, but our risotto is made from a short grain pasta, Orzo! Between the carby-goodness of the Orzo and the flavors of the Miso-Ginger Broth, the base reminded us of the comfort food of our youth, “Oriental Flavored Top Ramen.”

The completed dish also reminded us of one of our favorite fresh (ie. Heat and Serve) items, Greek Style Chicken with Orzo, Spinach and Feta Cheese. However our version would be called the “Asian Style Salmon with Orzo, Mushrooms, Edamame and Goat Cheese…Oh and A Chutney Of Cucumbers and Lychee”

And speaking of that chutney, it was a great stand alone item and makes a great side dish or topping. We’ll definitely be revisiting that again.

Couple other things about this dish: smoked salmon really was wanting to be a breakfast item, and Marie brought it because it tasted so good with bagels and cream cheese. It had a distinct flavor in the risotto dish (which I want to make again but with a plain baked salmon) that mellowed out a bit once we added the goat cheese.

Directions

Make Cucumber-Lychee Chutney: Combined all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Refrigerate for a half an hour.

Make Risotto: In a pot, warm up broth and water on medium-low. In another pan, over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp butter in a pan. Sautée shallot and garlic cloves for a few minutes. Add in orzo and cook for another couple minutes to brown a little. Now, you can begin to add a half a cup of warm stock/water until absorbed, then add another half cup, and continue this until all the liquid is absorbed. Make sure the heat is set to medium and you are stirring constantly.

Once all the stock is gone, you can use the same pot to melt 1 more tablespoon of butter and sauté the sliced shiitake mushrooms and fresh edamame over medium-high heat. This won’t take long to cook, you just want the mushrooms to soften and the edamame to warm throughout.

To assemble, place a a quarter of each in a bowl in the following order: orzo risotto, mushroom edamame mixture, smoked salmon (flaked, although see note at the bottom), cucumber-lychee chutney, and then the toppings (green onion, goat cheese and everything but the bagel seasoning).

NOTE (WHAT AMANDA WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY)- Instead of using the smoked salmon, you can bake fresh salmon. To do this, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, place salmon on baking sheet and rub with olive oil and top with fresh sea salt and pepper. Bake for about 16-18 minutes. This will decrease the smokiness of the salmon, and would be a great flavor to add to the top of the orzo risotto. You probably wouldn’t need to add the goat cheese and bagel seasoning.

We made the Blueberry-Lavender Coffee Popsicles by combining 1 cup of Blueberry-Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage with 1 cup Cold Brew (Black) Coffee and 1-2 Tbsp Coffee Syrup (start with one Tbsp and then add a little more if you like it sweeter). This will make about 10 popsicles, with each one containing 12 calories, 3.7g carbs, 3.2g sugar, and 11mg sodium…not too bad if you are looking for a sweet, summer treat that won’t break the scale. I mean, it’s basically the same as breathing air…plus a little sugar…

However, these popsicles are a little on the “icy” side. Great flavor though! You can experiment with adding a couple tablespoons of half and half into the mixture, which would no longer make it vegan, but might improve the mouthfeel a tad.

We have our first special guest of the season, a Mate from New York City! Plus, he is a vegetarian and expects the food to be #slammin‘. Will Amanda and Marie be able to come together and make some delicious food?

Watch the episode here:

Ingredients featured this week include:

First, let’s start off with our GIVEAWAY!

Mystery Pack of Regional Bags

Every Christmas, my mom and I would always buy each other the mystery packs of regional bags that Trader Joe’s sells. You can usually only get the regional bags from that specific area of the country, but the mystery bag packs have three random regional bags. It is always so much fun to get different bags and see what represents other cities.

Little did I know, that all along, my mom was just gaming for the New York City bag, ands always so disappointed when she never got one in the bags. Our friend, and Mate all the way from New York City, brought us some regional bags, making us able to use our last mystery pack for a giveaway!

We will be GIVING AWAY this mystery pack of regional bags as well as some of our favorite non-perishable swag from Trader Joe’s.

Find the mystery pack giveaway post on FACEBOOK – like that, share it with your friends, tag your friends, and comment. You get a point for each interaction! (you must be following Fearless Flying Kitchen on Facebook to count)

Find the mystery pack giveaway post on INSTAGRAM – like that, comment on it, and tag your friends. You get a point for each interaction! (you must be following Fearless Flying Kitchen on instagram to count)

Like and comment on any of the Swashbuckled videos on YouTube and get an extra point for each interaction!

Giveaway will end on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at midnight PST. Winner will be announced on the episode of Swashbuckled on Monday, June 11.

OK, now back to the food!

We had a #slammin’ time in the kitchen with Kris from New York. The only stipulation was that the food had to be vegetarian, and that Marie would be helping. Since the fridge was stocked for only lasagna, that’s what happened. Amanda made a delicious stovetop, easy lasagna. The combination of crème fraîche and ricotta was a little piece of heaven, and should be done with all lasagna from here on out. We also saved a little extra and topped our endives with it…also great. The sauce of Piquillo Pepper and Quinoa Spread with Whole Crushed Tomatoes was also a huge win. Great flavor and texture. You could just use your favorite jar of sauce if you truly want to make it a one pot meal…but this combo is definitely worth washing that second dish.

The only thing that was off was the mochi rice nugget topping. We all decided that just makes a great snack. But all in all, this was a great, quick, meal that you can get super creative with. It is perfect for busy weeknights when you need a little hands off time (but still need a meal on the table in less than an hour).

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375˚F. Prepare all vegetables (zoodle, slice and dice). Note, if you don’t have a zoodler, you can always just dice zucchini.

In a large skillet (that can go in the oven), heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add red bell peppers and cook about 3 minutes, then add zucchini. Cook both for about 5 more minutes, then add mushrooms and cook until they have softened.

Meanwhile, combine Piquillo Pepper and Quinoa Spread with one large can of whole peeled tomatoes. Crush whole peeled tomatoes in your hand as you are adding it to the pot. Heat over medium heat to a simmer. Add salt as needed (try it first, and add if it needs it according to your taste buds).

Spread the cooked vegetables evenly around the large skillet. Top with broken up pieces of lasagna noodles. Cover noodles completely with sauce. Cover with lid and reduce heat to medium-low. Let cook, covered, for about 20 minutes.

While the noodles and sauce cook, combine Ricotta Cheese, Crème Fraîche, parsley and parmesan cheese in a bowl and set aside.

After 20 minutes, remove cover and stir noodles. If they have softened, then top with Ricotta/Crème Fraîche mixture (little blobs all over). Top with even more mozzarella cheese, and place in the oven to help melt and brown cheese. Can put in the broiler on low for a little while too. Once brown, remove from oven and enjoy! If you can’t put your skillet in the oven, you could just cover with the lid again and let the cheese melt that way. It will get melty but not necessarily start to brown.

Note – In this episode we decimated half a bag of Mochi Rice Nuggets in the vitamix (or food processor, if you have one), and added it to the top of the lasagna along with the mozzarella and broiled it on low. We don’t recommend this step, but instead, just eat the mochi rice nuggets as a separate snack. However, if you did want to recreate what we did, this is it.

We, yet again, followed a recipe on the back of a product, and the result was #slammin’! There are always great ideas and suggestions on the back of the package. Marie begrudgingly proved that she can be somewhat useful in the kitchen!

My mother-in-law’s chocolate chip cookie recipe is something held sacred among her boys.

I, however, can’t ever get them right, even when I follow her recipe down to the most minute details. And trust me, have had lengthy conversations about her exact process, and I still really can’t figure out how she makes them so perfect each time. I have decided to stop beating myself up and attribute my past failures to the loss of 4.5K in elevation. But I still try! And, I tell ya, every time I make them, I always get a lack luster “yeah… they’re…good! But they just aren’t the same…did you change something in the recipe?”

At first…no, I wouldn’t change the recipe. But then after multiple failed attempts, I started to veer off and blaze a new trail.

Side note/Fun fact: I can never stick to a recipe. I always have to add a little this or a little that to make it more *me.* This aspect of my personality drives my other half absolutely bonkers.

Lucky for me, my daughter thinks it is super fun. If it were up to her, we wouldn’t use a recipe (or logic even) for anything we make.

Bless her heart, she just loves to be in the kitchen with me.

Most days of the week, my daughter asks if I want to make cookies with her. I know that she is ultimately asking because she is Cookie Monster’s mini-me, but I like to give her the opportunity to help out as much as possible in the kitchen and pass my knowledge on to her as often as I can. It’s a good life skill to have! So we usually make a little something together a few times a week.

Today, I had a container of oat bran staring me in the face (purchased to make Honey Raisin Oat Bran Muffins) My MIL’s chocolate chip recipe calls for oats, so I figured I would start with her recipe as a base and make a few…alterations.

First thing I did was swap out the Old Fashioned variety for Oat Bran.

Now, there isn’t anything wrong with old fashioned oats, it is just a little different than oat bran. Since I am super-pregnant at the moment, I need all the protein and calories I can get, I decided to opt for the bran (and here’s why…)

First, let’s have a closer look at oats:

When oats are harvested, their inedible hull is removed and you have Oat Groats. Groats are made up of three parts: the Bran, Endosperm and Germ (Click here for more information on those layers). In a nutshell…The BRAN layer is the outside layer, rich in protein, fiber, antioxidants and B-vitamins. The ENDOSPERM is the large middle layer that is rich in starchy carbohydrates, and also contains some protein as well as small amounts of vitamins and minerals. The GERM is the innermost layer that contains lots of healthy fats and b-vitamins as well as some minerals, protein.

Old Fashioned Oats come from a processing technique that steams the oats and then rolls them flat, giving you all three parts of the groat, thus making it a whole grain. Oat Bran is not considered a whole grain, because it is just the nutty outer layer that is full of fiber and protein.

Looking at the nutrients side by side, Oat Bran provides significantly more fiber and protein, and has a texture closer to flour, so it works well in baked goods. Not saying one is superior to the other, they are just different.

Getting back to these delicious cookies…

Some other swaps I made were changing half of the flour to 100% White Wheat Flour, substituting honey for part of the sugar, and adding cinnamon.

The result was surprisingly delicious, probably the best luck I have had with this recipe yet!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter, shortening, sugar, brown sugar and honey in a mixer on medium-high speed for a few minutes, until light and fluffy.

Add egg, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla. Mix well.

Add Oat Bran and Flours until combined. Add Raisins and Chocolate Chips according to taste.

Space cookies at least an inch apart on cookie sheet, as they spread. Bake for 10-14 minutes (smaller cookies 10, larger cookies will need more time). With a spatula, transfer to cooling rack and enjoy!

*I really am not a huge fan of shortening, because most contain partially hydrogenated oils (trans fat) and other chemicals that don’t belong anywhere near our bodies. But I do seldom use it in some baked goods because it does create a superior texture for cookies. Trader Joe’s doesn’t have shortening (that I know of), so you can use 1 cup of butter as opposed to part butter/part shortening. OR if you have some lard on hand, try that. I use All vegetable crisco baking sticks because they have no trans fat (the oil has been fully hydrogenated to saturated fat as opposed to partially hydrogenated to a trans fat), but they still aren’t the best option. I haven’t really found an alternative, so if you have any tips or tricks to replace shortening in cookies – leave a comment below!

The holiday season has begun, and one of my favorite things to do is get in the kitchen and bake cookies and treats. This one is my all-time-favorite. I have begun to incorporate this recipe into my life throughout the year too. Since it contains coffee, it is perfect for late night events or brunches. For instance, it has become my go-to cookie that I bake during tech week.

It also is a PERFECT cookie to serve Santa Claus on Christmas Eve to give him energy as he pulls the ultimate global-all-nighter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first five ingredients (dry) in mixer and combine on low. Add vanilla and butter and mix on medium speed until crumbly. Add chocolate chunks and/or nuts and mix until just combined.

Put dough into two 11X7 glass pans (or one large jelly roll pan), and press down. Should be about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (less time if they are thinner, more time if thicker).

Remove from oven, cut into pieces and let cool before removing from pan.

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Disclaimers:

The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.